Seth Rollins
Rollins appeared in a dark match prior to the SmackDown tapings on December 7, 2010 using the name Sam Robins, which he lost to Cody Rhodes. In late December of 2011, Rollins began appearing at SmackDown house shows, defeating Tyson Kidd on December 28, 29 and 30. Rollins appeared in a segment that aired during the Elimination Chamber 2012 PPV, where John Cena invited various developmental wrestlers to his gym in Tampa, and Rollins was one of a few of them who spoke. In March, Rollins once again began appearing at Smackdown live events, facing Drew McIntyre and losing to Cody Rhodes for the Intercontinental Championship. In May, Rollins appeared on WWE NXT at two of the three taped episodes with many of the other FCW rookies moving up to the main roster. In June 2012, Seth Rollins, debuted on the second episode of the sixth season of WWE NXT taped at Full Sail University, where he defeated Jiro. On the August 1 episode of NXT, Rollins was inserted into the Gold Rush Tournament to crown the first NXT Champion, where he defeated Drew McIntyre in the quarter-finals. In August 2012 Seth Rollins was crowned the very first NXT Champion after defeating Jinder Mahal in the final round. On the October 10 episode of NXT, Rollins had his first successful defense of his title against McGillicutty. During the November 15 tapings of NXT, Rollins pinned Mahal again in his second successful title defense; the episode of the match aired on December 12 due to tape delay. At the Survivor Series pay-per-view on November 18, Rollins, alongside Dean Ambrose and Roman Reigns, attacked Ryback during the triple-threat main event for the WWE Championship, which led to CM Punk pinning John Cena to retain his title. The trio of Rollins, Reigns and Ambrose declared themselves "The Shield" and vowed to rally against "injustice" while denying that they were working for Punk, but would routinely emerge from the crowd to attack Punk's adversaries such as Ryback, The Miz, Kane and Daniel Bryan, who had attempted to save Kane. This led to a Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match being set up for the TLC pay-per-view pitting the three men of the Shield against Ryback and Team Hell No (Kane and Bryan), which Ambrose, Reigns and Rollins won in their debut match. During the January 2, 2013 episode of NXT, which was taped on December 6, 2012, Rollins, now part of the Shield, defended his title against Corey Graves; as Graves was about to win the match, Ambrose and Reigns attacked him to cause a disqualification, but Rollins retained his title. On the January 7 episode of NXT taped on the same date, Rollins faced Big E Langston in a no disqualification title match. The NXT locker room neutralized the other Shield members, and Langston defeated Rollins to win the title. The Shield continued to aid Punk after TLC; during Punk and Ryback's TLC match for the WWE Championship on the January 7 episode of Raw, they attacked Ryback, which resulted in Punk retaining his title. During the Royal Rumble event where the Rock challenged for Punk's WWE Championship, match, a blackout occurred and the Rock was attacked in the darkness by unknown assailants, directly leading to Punk pinning Rock; the announcers blamed the Shield for the attack. The match was later restarted with Rock winning. The next day on Raw, the Shield attacked and laid out John Cena; Sheamus and Ryback suffered the same fate when they attempted to save Cena. Later in the show, it was revealed through footage played by Vince McMahon that Punk and/or his manager Paul Heyman had been paying the Shield and Brad Maddox to work for them all along. This set up a six-man tag team match at Elimination Chamber, which the Shield won. Continuing to feud with Sheamus, Randy Orton and the Big Show also got embroiled in the fight against the Shield, resulting in a six-man tag team match at WrestleMania 29. At WrestleMania, the Shield successfully defeated the team of Sheamus, Orton and Big Show after the latter turned on his team. The following night on Raw, The Shield attempted to attack The Undertaker who was paying his respects to late Paul Bearer but were stopped by Team Hell No. This set up a six-man tag team match on the April 22 episode of Raw, where The Shield emerged victorious. Four days later on SmackDown, after Ambrose lost to the Undertaker, he and the rest of the Shield viciously attacked Undertaker, beating him down with chairs and powebombing him through the announcers' table. Continuing to sporadically appear on NXT, Rollins continued his feud with Corey Graves who had vowed to dismantle The Shield. After interference from the rest of The Shield, Rollins defeated Graves in a Lumberjack Match. On the April 29 episode of Raw, The Shield defeated Team Hell No and WWE Champion John Cena in a six-man tag team match, they later suffered their first loss as a team via disqualification in a rematch of the event on the May 13 episode Raw, with an added elimination stipulation. Continuing their feud with Team Hell No, at Extreme Rules, Rollins as well as Roman Reigns defeated Kane and Daniel Bryan to win the WWE Tag Team Championships for the first time. Rollins and Reigns made their first televised title defense on the May 27 episode of Raw, defeating Team Hell No in a rematch. Rollins and Reigns successfully defended the championship Daniel Bryan and Randy Orton at WWE Payback and The Usos at Money in the Bank. Rollins and Reigns finally lost their tag team titles on October 14 of RAW in a No Disqualification match against the team of Rhodes brothers (Cody Rhodes and Goldust), ending their reign at 147 days. Category:NXT Champions Category:Current Superstar Category:WWE Tag Team Champions